Thursday, September 11, 2014

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It took President Obama less than one minute into last
night’s 15-minute national address to again claim credit for taking out Osama
bin Laden. The speech was an apparent effort to shore up his declining poll
numbers among voters. With the US Senate majority in play, the President is
currently a human boat anchor for Democrat candidates attempting to stay afloat.

The President; however, missed his mark. If he wants the
faith of the American people then he needs to shoot straight with us. There is
this statement, “Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not ‘Islamic.’ No
religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims
have been Muslim.” The only true part of that statement is “the vast majority
of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim” and while that part of the statement is
true, it is also misleading.

ISIL has certainly killed members of other religions. Its
seeming preference for killing fellow Islamists; however, is simply a function
of opportunity not preference. Does anyone doubt that members of ISIL would shy
away from killing more Christians or Jews if they found themselves with the
opportunity?

As for the rest of that statement, it was pure political
correctness. Is ISIL Islamic? By their own definition and assertion, they are.
This is the same politically correct nonsense that branded Major Nidal Hasan’s
murder of 13 Americans and the attempted murder of 32 others as “workplace
violence” despite his reported cries of “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire.

Regarding the “no religion condones the killing of innocents”,
perhaps President Obama should consider the following among the many verses in
the Quran that endorse the killing of non-believers who do not convert or pay
the extra taxes required of non-Muslims.

“If the
hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and the alarmists in the
city do not cease, We verily shall urge thee on against them, then they will be
your neighbors in it but a little while. Accursed, they will be seized wherever
found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter.” – Quran 33:60-62

Then we have this statement from our Commander-in-Chief, “Moreover,
I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our
country, wherever they are.” To quote the Beatles, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Two
years after Benghazi we arrestedAbu Khatallah,the “mastermind” of that terrorist attack, and
brought him back for trial.

US Attorney General “Eric the Dread” Holder has proclaimed
that Khatallah will be given a trial in US federal court. So here we go again,
the Obama Administration is in love with litigation and the court system to the
detriment of American interests. Yes, you killed our Ambassador to Libya and
three other Americans in an orchestrated military attack so it’s off to court
with you.

Oooooo! And who wouldn’t be afraid of an American jury
deciding on a slam-dunk murder charge? I mean other than O. J. Simpson and
Casey Anthony and a cast of hundreds. What’s the real message from President
Obama? Don’t kill Americans or our lawyers will get you! Beware our fierce
gray-pinstriped warriors armed with briefcases and rhetoric!

President Obama did list a four-part plan for dealing with
ISIL, but if he can’t be honest with the American people in defining the
problem then the details are not pertinent. If President Obama can’t even be
truthful enough to recognize that people who have declared an Islamic Caliphate
are actually Muslims then why should we believe anything he says?

The main thrust of President Obama’s speech was a reassurance
to the American voters that he wasn’t nearly as disengaged as he appears to be.
He’s certainly not disengaged from politics as his insistence on placing
politically correct rhetoric above honesty shows. As for engagement in US
foreign policy, I have never seen a man in power less prepared to make
decisions than Barack Obama.

Today’s Quote: “When
the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity,
their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They
will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides,
of the people.” – Edmund
Burke

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Q. President Obama said, “If you like your health care plan,
you can keep your health care plan. If you like your doctoryou will be able to keep your doctor. Period.”
I do, so why can’t I?

A. The answer is quite complicated, so please bear with me.
You’re just an American citizen, a part of the masses, an absolute nothing to
the grinding wheel of big government, big egos and big lies. You simply don’t
deserve the truth about anything. Suck it up and keep paying your taxes.

A. Cry me a river, moron. If you actually believed that government
could be more efficient than a private sector which has competition and
therefore a need to be efficient; that an added layer of federal bureaucracy
somehow made healthcare less expensive; and, that millions more people could be
insured while the average American family saved $2,500 per year then you should
donate your brain to science – they’re always looking for unused specimens.

Q. Is my personal information safe on Healthcare.gov?

A. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Stop it! My ribs are killing me and I've
laughed so hard that my face hurts. Listen, the government can’t even keep
secret the stuff the government wants
to keep secret. Do you really think President O wanted Angela Merkel to know
her personal cellphone was tapped? Do you think he wanted us to know that Eric
Holder’s little gun-running scheme resulted in the deaths of hundreds of
innocent Mexicans? What about Benghazi? The IRS scandal? Safe? Your personal
medical records would likely be safer posted on your Facebook page than in the hands of Joe Biden.

The only thing that might save your little tidbits of
information is that the website is so poorly designed hackers might never be
able to find the database. Plus the data is apparently compressed and stored on
the aging hard drive of an IBM PS/1 with 640k of RAM - insert your own joke
about a five-and-a-quarter inch floppy.

If you continue to live in the United States and think you might possibly have health problems in the future, follow this sage advice: Begin a life-long love affair with exercise, low-carb foods, and a doctor.

Q. Will Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius be
fired because of the poor roll-out, or as some call it the train wreck, of the healthcare.gov website?

A. No. Actually, she’s going to get a super-secret Barack
Obama medal. You see, the failure of the website is preventing people from
seeing the even more serious failures of Obamacare, such as the increased premiums and elimination of small business policies. They're not even discussing the two million
people who are already losing their insurance coverage. And that is far, far
beyond a train wreck – it’s more like a train wreck combined with a stock market crash,
your daughter dating

Monday, October 14, 2013

The ramifications of the GOP yielding to President Barack Obama and Harry Reid on the issue of the immediate implementation of Obamacare have been fully grasped by neither the Republican leadership nor the conservative media. Once the grossly misnamed Affordable Healthcare Act (AHA) has been fully implemented, the US House of Representatives will be unable to ever use the threat of a government shutdown again - for any reason.

English: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and senior staff, react in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, as the House passes the health care reform bill. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Republicans have avoided any real consequences for holding the line on a one-year delay on the requirement that individuals register for the new law. In addition, they will eventually make hay out of the Democrats insistence that Congress and White House appointees be exempt from the law they passed and crafted. This shutdown is not the problem; it's the next shutdown that will count.

One could argue that the GOP has been hurt in the polls more than Democrats and that is true. President Obama, aided by an intentionally ignorant media, has done a good job of frightening citizens. Fearful or not; however, the only polls that matter, as any politician will tell you, are on election day. No one believes voters will still be frightened due to this issue more than a year in the future.

There is no logical thought process in which the Left does not threaten Americans with a loss of healthcare in future debt ceiling showdowns.

Yet, it is imperative that Republicans hold steady. The year-long delay for an individual participation requirement in AHA is reasonable and necessary. Reasonable in that the system is not ready and the effects and individual costs of the law cannot yet be anticipated. Necessary in that the implementation of Obamacare will almost certainly blunt any threat to rein in government spending by using the approved debt limit as leverage.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

“It’s all the same and it’s all meaningless.” If they cared
enough to have one, it would be the battle cry of the apathetic non-voter. These
are the people who are too lazy to differentiate between sides, too
intentionally ignorant to look at issues, and too stupid to understand that
their servile indifference equates to rabid support of this country’s problems.

They have help, of course, in the form of a mass media which
refuses to face facts and cannot resist allowing their biases and opinions to
molest straight news stories. The dichotomy between what people perceive and
what passes for news is so great that they believe neither.

Surprise! In “The Information Age” it’s harder to get facts
than it was sixty years ago. The pablum in the press is provided by people who
are no longer interested in truth and whose idea of morality extends to “their
side” winning the next election. Call it “situational morality” or the Left’s
mantra “the ends justify the means” but nihilism is winning the day. The denial
of great truths about the intrinsic value of life and liberty are common – in every
sense of the word.

The mainstream media kowtows to power, especially statist
and Leftist power, and can’t seem to ask straightforward questions that affect
our future. In the face of blatant lies that defy all logic, the press simply
smooths its skirts and looks vaguely embarrassed but can’t seem to remember why
it should feel shame or humiliation.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

I believe the best ideas are concepts that can be applied effectively within multiple disciplines. The Doctrine of Rapid Dominance (DRD) fits this description with practical uses from philanthropy to armed engagement.

Developed by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade and first presented in a 1996 report to National Defense University, you're likely familiar with the Doctrine of Rapid Dominance in its military form: "Shock and Awe". The doctrine is incredibly effective, not simply because it brings overwhelming force to bear, but because its goal is to seize control of the environment and drive opponents to distraction and despair.DRD throws so much firepower at an opponent that the opponent is paralyzed, unable to know how to respond, and ultimately loses heart and nerve. This successfully enacted theory is why armed Iraqi troops surrendered to US television camera crews. For the past four and one-half years it has been employed by the Obama Administration against all who stood in its way, but not on the battlefield. DRD has been used in an attack on American laws and culture.
This is the model for Barack Obama's administration and has been so successful that as long as the US Senate and the mainstream media support him there is no reason for him to change. The ever-multiplying czars have been an important part of this strategy, with each new czar becoming a new front with which Republicans have been forced to deal. The same goes for discovered and reinterpreted regulations by federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Labor Relations Board.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Greek philosopher Zeno’s most famous paradox was an attempt
to show that motion is a myth. In Zeno’s scenario, Achilles must race a tortoise
and because Achilles is much faster he gives the tortoise a head start. Surely
a demigod outraces a plodding reptile with four-inch legs, right?

“Not so fast, my friend,” said Zeno of Elea, who may have
been an ancestor of ESPN commentator Lee Corso. After the contestants begin
running, Achilles reaches the starting point of the tortoise, but the tortoise
is also moving and is at a point farther down the track. Achilles will soon
reach that second point, but his armored rival has again moved on. This
scenario repeats an infinite number of times because there are an infinite
number of points between the two.

The point (pun intended) Zeno was attempting to make was that while
Achilles gains on the tortoise he can never catch him. The current – and more
accurate – scenario is the reduction of the deficit can never reduce the debt.

The deficit is like the gap between Zeno and the tortoise; it doesn’t matter how much you reduce the deficit, income never catches
spending and thus every year we are more in debt. When a politician brags on “reducing
the deficit” - and I’m looking at you Barack Obama - remember they’re losing
ground to a tortoise and at the end of the day our federal government is more
in debt.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

“While we're talking,
envious time is fleeing: pluck the day, put no trust in the future” -
Horace

Years ago
when I was a graduate teaching assistant in economics, I had a student ask why
I was a conservative. The conversation took place after a class in which I
mentioned that I was a fan of the Austrian School of Economic Thought.

The question
was a legitimate one and asked honestly. I struggled for an answer at the time,
mentioning several issues of morality as well as individual freedoms. I never did
give an answer with which I was completely happy but I knew a better, yet
simpler, answer existed.

I knew there
was an underlying philosophy that tied those beliefs together. Later, I was
able to put together what I should have said: “There are only a certain number
of decisions to be made about your life in any given day. I’m a conservative
because I believe you should make as many of those decisions as possible.”

There are only a certain number of decisions to be made about your life in any given day. I’m a conservative because I believe you should make as many of those decisions as possible.

It's past time for us to remind our elected officials and the faceless bureaucrats who re-interpret regulations to force more government decisions onto citizens that the day is, indeed, our day. I encourage you to take a part of your day to show an interest in the politics of our nation. It already has an interest in you.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

If you missed the reason for the #BlockReuters movement, then please take a look at my prior post, which also includes the initial list of those who have blocked Reuters on Twitter. Please remember to follow @ToddKincannon; see my prior post as to why. Also, follow @ConservativePA whose work allowed this post to be made hours earlier than otherwise. Thanks, Ken Carroll @KenInEastman

"I love to see honest and honorable men at
the helm, men who will not bend their politics to their purses nor pursue
measures by which they may profit and then profit by their measures." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Rutledge

“The average newspaper has
the intelligence of a hillbilly, the courage of a rat, the fairness of a
claim-jumper, the information of a high-school janitor, the taste of a designer
of celluloid valentines, and the honor of a police-station lawyer.” - H. L. Mencken

“Americanism means the
virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood--the
virtues that made America. The things that will destroy America are
prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of
duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.” - Theodore Roosevelt

“Fascism was really the
basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini’s success in Italy, with his
government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But
Mussolini keeps the trains running on time." - Ronald Reagan

“We welcome change and
openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the
advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that
would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and
peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity
for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” - Ronald Reagan

“It is better to be a
human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied
than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion,
it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to
the comparison knows both sides.” - John Stuart Mill

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the
tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home
from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick
the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may
posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

What is the debt of the media to truth? Do you believe that media has a higher requirement to the truth than the town gossip? If so, do we have a responsibility to hold the media to the required standard?Representative democracy requires an active and honest press. With three days remaining before the most important US Presidential election in my lifetime, Reuters has embraced partisanship over truth. For the details, visit Twitchy Media.Never one to sit idly while there is a cause to be undertaken and conservative mischief to be made, South Carolinian Todd Kincannon (@ToddKincannon) has combined social media and the good old-fashioned boycott with the #BlockReuters hashtag.Kincannon is enlisting people on Twitter to block tweets from Reuters. I'm sure the term 'censorship' will be tossed around, but of the two alternatives to the moderates' favorite answer (doing absolutely nothing), #BlockReuters is far less violent than the other alternative.I encourage you to block Reuters because it does two things of importance. First, it will show Reuters that there is a cost to abandoning even the pretense of neutrality. Tolerating half-truths, myths and opinion-as-news from the press has led to . . . surprise! . . . More half-truths, myths and opinion-as-news. There is an unassailable argument that tolerating and financially rewarding crap leads to more crap.Second, it will draw attention to what Reuters has done in its headline that blurs a major mistake by President Obama (the 'revenge' statement) by accusing Governor Romney of the same thing. Reuters ignores the troublesome fact that Governor Romney merely quoted Obama's remark. Not exactly a truthful representation from Reuters.Kincannon wisely suggests that those who feel strongly about blocking Reuters would benefit from following others of similar sentiment and commitment on Twitter. I agree and so to facilitate that, with Mr. Kincannon's permission, I have compiled the list of those he has listed on Twitter as blocking Reuters. The names are in the order in which they were mentioned.As more names become available, I will amend the list. To make the list easier to use, I've tossed in some quotations as placeholders to break up the list.@marcfollana@zanshi1@Sassy_Gator_Gal@TimothyODonnel2@debwilliams@TOProject@jfgroves@JoeFL65@Robinsbodybyvi@Nel_Mezzo@MusicCityVic@Whatwesettlefor@triplerbailbond@ChasBrowning@TedBlurnEsq@justjeryl@packersredwings@cajunkate@deebs001@redriverranch@thx4obombing@Jerruh@JVinDC@TFinn82@tfinefine

“If language is not
correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is
meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals
and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about
in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said.
This matters above everything.”- Confucius

“Public opinion, in
relation to government and its policy, is as much divided and diversified, as
are the interests of the community; and the press, instead of being the organ
of the whole, is usually but the organ of these various and diversified
interests respectively; or rather, of the parties growing out of them.” - John C. Calhoun

“The truth seems to be that
propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it
inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have
ceased to believe. It penetrates into minds already open, and rather than
instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the
minds of its recipients.” - Eric Hoffer

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Thanks for stopping by. I've been writing this blog for some time now, with the occasional exception due to the absence of my muse. It seems she may have joined a union and occasionally engage in a work slow down.

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